Hilary Devey

Hilary Devey CBE
Born	Hilary Lorraine Devey (1957-03-10) 10 March 1957 Bolton, Lancashire, United Kingdom[1]
Nationality	British
Occupation	businesswoman, television personality, entrepreneur
Years active	1996–present
Employer	Channel 4 (current) BBC (former)
Notable work(s)	Dragons' Den (2011–12) Hotel GB (2012) The Intern (2013)
Net worth	$75m (approx.)[citation needed]
Title	CEO, Chairman of Pall-Ex Group
Term	1996–present
Children	Mevlit Brewster-Ahmet
Awards	Honorary Doctorate of Laws (2010) Honorary Doctor of Business Administration (2012) CBE (2013)
Website
Official Website

Hilary Lorraine Devey CBE (born 10 March 1957) is an English businesswoman,^[2] television personality and entrepreneur, best known for her two-year role on BBC Two programme Dragons' Den until she left to present the five-part Channel 4 series The Intern.

Early life

She attended Bolton School in Bolton, Lancashire and as a seven year child, she witnessed the results of the bankruptcy of her father, who had owned a central heating company, when bailiffs removed furniture and household goods from the family home. Her father then earned a living managing pubs and hotels. After leaving Bolton Grammar at the age of sixteen she served for a short time in the Women's Royal Air Force in air traffic control and supply accounts and was stationed at RAF Brize Norton. She later moved to London.^[3][4][5]

Career

Business

Devey made her fortune launching Pall-Ex, a palletised freight network. Launched in 1996, Pall-Ex was the third palletised goods distribution network to be launched in the UK. It was based on the well-established hub and spoke express parcels distribution model - this form of pallet network was pioneered by Palletline in 1992. Pall-Ex handles around 10,000 palletised consignments through its Leicestershire hub each day and has annual revenues of approximately £75 million.^{[citation needed]}

Television

Devey has featured in several television programmes including Channel 4's Secret Millionaire in 2008, where she donated more than £350,000 to the Back Door Music Project and the Syke Community Centre in Rochdale. In March 2010 she appeared on The Business Inspector for Channel 5, a four-part documentary series which saw her use her business acumen and expertise to help transform struggling small businesses into successful profitable companies.

In February 2011 Devey joined the panel of the BBC Two programme Dragons' Den^[6] following the departure of James Caan. Appearing on the programme she popularised her expression "you would make my foot itch" to indicate dissatisfaction or lack of interest in a venture. She later announced that she would be leaving the series in June 2012, as she had signed an exclusive two year agreement with Channel 4.

In September 2012 Devey presented her last programme for BBC Two, a mini-series called Hilary Devey's Women at the Top, a joint Open University and BBC Two production.^[7] In April 2013 she began fronting the new Channel 4 series The Intern, a six-part business documentary in which sees gave three young interns a week's trial in the job of their dreams. The first three aired in the Thursday 9pm time-slot, but the later three were broadcast on Wednesday nights at 11pm.

Charity

Devey campaigns for various charities including Carers Trust, of which she became vice-president in 2012. She donates to charity one penny for each pallet distributed by the Pall-Ex network through her 'Penny a Pallet' scheme.^[8] She also supports the Stroke Association, for which she became a patron in 2010.

Personal life

Devey previously resided near Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England, yet has now relocated to Boylestone in Derbyshire. She also has a house in London and villas in Morocco, Spain and Boca Raton in Florida. She has been divorced twice and has stated publicly that her son is a former heroin and crack cocaine^[9] addict.^{[citation needed]} Devey owns four dogs, including Mixie and Dixie, her teacup yorkies who have appeared with her in the press and on TV.

She suffered a stroke in 2009 after having an abdominoplasty operation.^[10] She is a smoker, stating she has smoked forty cigarettes a day since she was a teenager.^[10]

She is a Bolton Wanderers supporter.^[11]

On 28 October 2012 she spoke on BBC Radio 4 about her family sorrow.^[12] Her mother found out, only years after getting together with her father, that he already had a wife and four children. Years later, history repeated itself when she herself discovered that her ex-partner was also already married with five children.

Awards

Devey was awarded the Vitalise Woman of the Year Award in 2008,^[13] and an Honorary Doctorate of Law by the University of Leicester in 2010 for her services to industry.^[14] Other UK domestic awards have included the Sir Robert Lawrence Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in 2009 and the Personality of the Year in the International Freight Weekly Awards for 2010.

In July 2012 Devey was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration by the University of Bolton for services to business.

Devey was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), in the 2013 Birthday Honours, for services to the transport industry and charity.^[15][16]

Books

• Bold As Brass: My Story, (2012), London, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-76593-1^[17]

References

External links

• Hilary Devey website
• Secret Millionaire at Channel4.com
• Blog about her home